The present invention relates to a photodetection sensor to be used in various types of electronic equipment, such as TVs (Television Receivers) or VTRs (Video Tape Recorders), for use of reception of remote-control signal light.
Conventionally, there has been available a photodetection sensor for remote control use, for example, as described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. H09-84162. This photodetection sensor has a photodetection chip, a control-use IC chip, a chip resistor and a chip capacitor, all of which are mounted on a lead frame and encapsulated in an insulative light-pervious resin having a lens portion. Further, for shielding from electromagnetic noise, the top surface of the light-pervious resin is covered with an electrically conductive resin, and a strip-shaped protruding portion of a grounding terminal of the lead frame is covered with this conductive resin, by which the conductive resin and the grounding terminal are electrically connected to each other.
In this conventional photodetection sensor, the lens portion of the light-pervious resin at the frontage of the photodetection chip is covered with a separate component member, metal mesh, not with the conductive resin so that infrared remote-control signal light can be received by the photodetection chip. This metal mesh is integrally fixed to the lens portion by injection molding of the conductive resin. More specifically, with the separate component metal mesh put on the lens portion of the light-pervious resin, these members are set to a metal mold and the conductive resin is injection-molded therein, by which the metal mesh is integrally fixed to the lens portion.
However, in this conventional photodetection sensor, the electrical connection between the grounding terminal and the conductive resin is fulfilled by covering the strip-shaped protruding portion of the grounding terminal protruded from the light-pervious resin with electrically conductive resin. This causes a problem that the conductive resin is liable to peel off from the grounding terminal because of thermal stress due to abrupt temperature changes or the like. This peeling, once occurred, would cause the electrical connection between the conductive resin and the grounding terminal to be insufficient, resulting in a decreased electromagnetic shield effect. Thus, the conventional photodetection sensor has an issue that it cannot be used under environments involving much electromagnetic noise.
Also, in the above conventional photodetection sensor, with a separate component metal mesh put on the lens portion of the light-pervious resin, these members are set to a metal mold, and the conductive resin is injection-molded, by which the metal mesh is integrally fixed to the lens portion. Therefore, there arises a need for a metal mesh, which is a separate component, involving a cost increase as well as time and labor for setting the metal mesh to the lens portion, with the result of a further issue of worse productivity.